


The Vines in Our Veins

by linocaffe



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Break Up, Friends to Lovers, I'm Sorry, M/M, Magical Realism, Non-Linear Narrative, Or I tried, Sad Ending, Strangers to Lovers, kind of poetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26997493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linocaffe/pseuds/linocaffe
Summary: That night where both of them were lonely and young. That night where Seungmin climbed up the stairs to the rooftop, and found another lonely boy like him. Where he just laid down beside him, not caring who he was or what he was doing there, just looking up at the dark sky. There was a silent agreement right there, that they would just enjoy each other's company for a while.And when you think about it, that was the original plan: it was just a while. It extended longer than expected, maybe longer than it needed to be. The vines in their veins had entangled together that night, without them even noticing.ORSeungmin and Hyunjin's love through the years but with magical realism elements.
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: SKZ Jukebox Fest Speed Round





	The Vines in Our Veins

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! this is inspired by 2 kids by taemin for [skzjukeboxfest](https://twitter.com/skzjukeboxfest) speed round.
> 
> hope you enjoy!!

When Hyunjin and Seungmin first met there were no expectations, no ideals and nothing to meet. There was nothing more than two students, sneaking into their high school at night. There was nothing more than two kids wanting to be alone, and maybe, just maybe, a thread of destiny. Did destiny have everything planned from the start? Was it all set on the stars that they saw together that night? No one can tell you that. No one knows. But whether it was meant to happen or not wasn’t the matter, it happened anyway. Everything, from beginning to end; because time runs, stars die, and love dims, just like it had sparked once that night. 

That night where both of them were lonely and young. That night where Seungmin climbed up the stairs to the rooftop, and found another lonely boy like him. Where he just laid down beside him, not caring who he was or what he was doing there, just looking up at the dark sky. There was a silent agreement right there, that they would just enjoy each other's company for a while. 

And when you think about it, that was the original plan: it was just a while. It extended longer than expected, maybe longer than it needed to be. The vines in their veins had entangled together that night, without them even noticing, because later that week they found their way to each other again. One look, one word and they were pulled together once more.

“Are you following me?” Those words still ring fresh on both their minds, muttered in a light tone, with a light smile.

“I don’t even know who you are.” Seungmin answered dismissively, but sat down on the swing next to Hyunjin. 

Seungmin doesn’t know it yet; that he will hear those words again. But they won’t come from his mouth this time. Whatever work had started the other night had carried into this one, when Hyunjin placed his hand in between them, palm up, an open invitation to be taken. And Seungmin took it.

Sometimes Seungmin wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t taken it. Hyunjin wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t offered. Both wonder what if they would have never walked out at night. But those are wonders, not regrets.

And so that night Seungmin took it, and Hyunjin led. It was a night neither of them will ever forget. The wind in their hair, the sound of their feet running fast against the pavement on a humid and quiet night, and the sound of a runaway laugh, followed by another, harvested from their hearts, that will forever bloom on their memories and would mix with the garden of their story. One of the only flowers that are left now. 

There was nothing on their minds, nothing but a feeling of freedom and restlessness, and maybe that was what both had fallen in love with, not each other.

It was that night that it first started for real. When Hyunjin took Seungmin to the old lone tree house. Broken and void of the color that it once had. Had it been an omen? A sign? Seungmin was tired of looking for the signs. If there would have been, would he have spent so many days, hours, minutes on that old rotten house? But everyday was worth it. Every time he opened the window at 2 a.m., to find a boy with blonde long hair waiting, offering his hand just like the first time, where he would take it and run wild, to find their own home.

The moments together building up like a painting in the making. Every color was added, one at a time. Mixing some was supposed to make new colors, if you mixed them right. Where had it gone wrong? Where had they mixed too many together, so it all ended up black?

It was day after day, both of them together, finding their way to each other. A look on the hallway, a smile, that laughter, and… a kiss, shared after school. 

Finally. A kiss. Their hearts had danced inside their rib cages, wild and alive. Red coming from their chest, lips, fingertips on each other's necks. And that had been one more color to the canvas. 

Who had been the painter of their story? Hyunjin didn’t blame him though. He ended up turning into a painter himself, so he knew. And was he any good? Well, that would depend. He could paint the moon falling from the sky, make the flowers bloom in winter, and have snow come in spring, but he couldn’t quite paint love right. 

So time took that job to itself. It painted every second they were apart, every minute of those phone calls that ended too early, every hour the plane flew in the sky, far, far away from each other, every day where a birthday would come and there was no one there to blow the candles with. 

Hyunjin had tried to paint it as good as he could. He had tried to pay attention to the details, the small parts, he had gotten close, too close, so close that he forgot to look at the big picture. And every painter knows that once in a while you need to take a step back from the canvas. 

Seungmin had tried to remind him of that. You need to look at the whole view, see your reference from afar, snap the moment from a bigger perspective, or it was easy to get lost. Seungmin knew it well, he captured those moments for a living. He looked at those moments through a lens, and stored them in a small black box. 

But he wondered…who had stored the good ending of their story? And where had it ended up? Seungmin might have been careless. He knew all the right ways to snap a moment, but sometimes the view was too wide. Other times, his click was too slow, and lost the ones he was meant to capture, the ones that really mattered.

Space did the job for him. It captured the centimeters between them in their bed at night, the meter between each other’s thoughts, the miles spread apart, each in a different place, a different nation.

In the moments where they were back together, they felt hope, as if the now withered garden could grow again. Hyunjin could feel the vines in his veins growing again, reaching, climbing. Seungmin could see the color turning more vibrant, greener, like it was before. Their touch again was like wind, water and sun. Them lying in bed together, hands of their faces, lips on lips, it could almost, almost go alive again. But there’s only so much you can do. There’s only so much wind, water and sun that you can give a garden that’s already half dead, and sometimes it’s too late to change the course of life.

“I don’t even know you.” It was bitter this time. Regretful. Hyunjin hadn’t stated this as an accusation, it was more of a fact. And he couldn’t tell who was the one to blame. 

Their vines had untangled without them noticing, their trees growing too far apart, away from the other. Every fight, every day away, without noticing had created two separate paintings instead of one. And they couldn’t recognize their gardens anymore. Like trapped up in a maze, separating one from the other, and they couldn’t find their way back. Their hearts were no longer full of bright red paint, but thorns, and it hurt too much to breathe. The more they ran the more lost they got. The more they ran the more the thorns pricked at their lungs. When did the soft feeling of rose petals get replaced by this pain?

At the end, no one knows. No one knows anything but one thing: they were just too young that night, too dumb the rest of the time. It all seemed like that one night sky, endless. But the end arrived. 

At the end, their love really was like a flower; too beautiful to last too long. Someday it had to die.

Seungmin heard the words coming from his own mouth.

“Sometimes love ends, and that’s fine.” It doesn’t mean it wasn’t love.

Hyunjin read the words written with his own hand.

“Who we were when we were young is not who we are now.” It doesn’t mean trying wasn’t worth it.

Memories. That was the only sprout left, the only untarnished piece of their love. All the nights together at their castle in a tree, all the kisses soft like spring breeze, the sound of laughter like wind rustling tree leaves, the stars in their eyes while they looked at each other, those three whispered words that sounded loud like currents running wild. Were they too naïve to think that would last? 

If you asked Seungmin, he would tell you it was worth it. If you asked Hyunjin, he would say he doesn’t regret it. Despite the fights, the long and sleepless nights, and it all coming to a sad end, it was still as bright and beautiful as love can be. Even after it ended, when one of them moved away for good, when phone calls stopped and words were no longer flowing in between them, even now years after, both remember their love as nothing but true and pure. And they both agreed on one more thing: that letting go is not an act of dessinteress and indifference, sometimes it’s an act of love too.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!
> 
> [my twitter!](https://twitter.com/linocaffe)


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